Exploring our perception of digital fashion with HOT:SECOND concept store
Karinna Nobbs is Fashion Futurist and Academic who’s research led to her conceive the idea of HOT:SECOND, a physical pop-up concept store at Protein Studios that explores our perception of digital fashion.
Through her stakeholder research Karinna discovered there is considerable confusion and disbelief around what digital fashion is and how it works. This was further compounded thorough a recent UK survey Karinna undertook with One Pulse, which found:
38% are unfamiliar with the term digital fashion60% are curious about digital fashion27% consider an interaction with digital garments could help them decide whether to buy the physical garment22% believe that digital fashion could offer a way for them to enjoy fashion in a more sustainable wayThere have been previous iterations of digital fashion customer experiences, such as Microsoft Augumented Reality Kinect fitting-room for Topshop in Moscow in 2011 and Uniqlo x Holition World’s First Magic Mirror in 2012. However the HOT:SECOND collaboration with Holition and 3D artist Emily Switzer allows visitors to access digital fashion garments from pioneering brands including The Fabricant, Carlings/VIRTUE and sustainability pioneer Christopher Raeburn. This promotes interaction and subsequent conversation around sustainability and how digital fashion can reduce over production and reduce garment return rates.
The interest in using technology to create production effiencies and involve customers in the design process is something several retailers are looking to crack. At the recent Web Summit in Lisbon, Tommy Hilfiger announced that by 2021, all of Tommy Hilfiger’s design processes — from sketching through sampling and showrooming — will be done with 3D design. PVH Europe (who own Tommy Hilfiger) plans to develop the technology while also delving deeper into digital clothing. Digital production is set to offer some very clear tangible benefits, but what is yet to be seen is how factories will manage the production cycle. We hope that designed on demand doesn't mean that factories and their workers have to produce garments even faster than the do at the moment.
For now there are limitations with technology, however there remains a desire from both brands and consumers to explore digital fashion and we have a feeling that Karinna will be part of that conversation in the future too!
Visit HOT:SECOND at Protein Studios in Shoreditch from Tuesday 19th –Thursday 21st November and also sign up to HOT:SECOND Events.
“This project fundamentally addresses two issues that interest us, one is around sustainability, and what that actually means in relation to the circular economy, recycling and reusing products and maximising the lifespan of a product. The other element is digital. We are always interested in ideas which are at the beginning of their journey and digital clothing could well be a very big thing in the future, but the only way to understand it is to explore it and get consumers reactions.”
DEEP by The Fabricant
“The project is another step towards a more sustainable fashion industry by creating an experience that reduces the physical need of clothing while allowing for new business models to be tested outside of the gaming focus, purely transforming fashion towards its digital-only experience.”
“We are always looking to innovate but also disrupt and challenge the industry as we know it, it therefore made perfect sense for us to get involved in HOT:SECOND. Digital clothing has real potential to drive responsible design and our inherent agility also allows us to be flexible with these ideas and, of course to learn.”
“We got involved first and foremost because we loved the project one hundred percent. Both the innovative and sustainable aspect within it really plays along with our values. We see it part of our responsibility to contribute towards projects that do that.”
The next stage for the installation is to enable visitors to access the digital experience by donating an “unloved” garment to the Love not Landfill installation. Once that gesture is completed a token will be given which grants entry to one of the futuristic pods, where the journey starts. Inside, a human digital tailor awaits, ready to unveil the mixed reality magic mirror crafted by Holition. In the course of the next three to five minutes the visitor tries a spectrum of digital fashion garments from Couture to Streetwear. At the end, guests will be able to take away both a digital and physical memory of their experience and it is hoped that a transformation of feelings and attitudes towards digital fashion garments will have taken place.
Whilst the store is open the research will be ongoing and the insights gained will be jointly published with Protein in early 2020. The next evolution of the experiential digital fashion concept is planned to debut at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2020 in collaboration with LUKSO who are an exciting blockchain company specialised in tokenising assets within the creative economies.
“When you work in a digital medium you rarely get to see any physical manifestation of that work, but this project will allow people to connect and enjoy my 3D garments in a palpable way, and as an artist it’s always a pleasure to see how people will react to your work.”
“As the fashion industry fuelled by social media race to speed up the supply chain, we are proud to have partnered with Carlings to cut it out entirely by launching the first-ever fully digital clothing collection that overhauls a business model under pressure and challenges the environmental impact of an industry. The best Instagrammers are almost lifestyle artist. The square is their canvas, and their style is their brush. But the ones who are really pushing fashion aren’t always the ones with funds to realize their vision. We wanted to use technology to liberate style from money. HOT:SECOND is an amazing project that we are proudly part of in our quest to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.”
If digital fashion and fashion tech is your thing, take a look at our London Tech Week Event Roundup.
18.11.2019
